.....just not good enough for every other GM to take him with an earlier pick several times over.
We really need to judge on peers, not on perfection.
SOMETHING wasnt as rosy as you paint to have him skipped over that many times by that many well educated and experienced people. Ainge agreed and thought it was enough not to pick him.
Not every team is looking for the same thing in a draft, especially in the 20s where you're looking for roster fits more than pure talent. I'm not going to say that a team picking before 20 should've been choosing Desmond Bane over whoever because that's just not reasonable - he wasn't thought of as a lottery or near lottery pick.
But teams after 20:
20: Miami - Precious Achiuwa - PF - Higher upside than Bane at the time
21: Philly - Tyrese Maxey - SG, but in hindsight (and even now) this pick makes sense
22: Denver - Zeke Nnaji - Center - Clearly prioritizing a backup Center with this pick
23: Minny - Leandro Balmaro - SF - Bad pick, but Minny had just spent the number one pick in the draft on Edwards - they weren't drafting another SG
24: Denver - RJ Hampton - SG - Doesn't look good now, but back then this made sense, as Hampton had higher upside over Bane
25: NYK - Immanuel Quickley - SG - Back then, this made sense - he was the higher upside player vs. Bane
25: Bos - Payton Pritchard - SG - Okay
27: Utah - Udoka Azabuike - Center - had Mitchell, clearly prioritizing a backup center with pick
28: Minny - Jaden McDaniels - SF/PF - See above; clearly looking for a long wing
29: Toronto - Malachi Flynn - PG - not the same skill set as Bane; TOR drafting for a distributor
30: Mem - Desmond Bane - SG
Over the course of ten picks where Bane could've reasonably been drafted, 5 shooting guards (including him) were taken. Maxey, Quickley made sense at the time and were good in hindsight. Hampton was a bad pick, but he was also a big time high school recruit, longer, and more athletic - you can at least understand the thought process behind taking RJ over him.
Pritchard sticks out like a sore thumb because they were both drafted for the same skill (shooting) but Pritchard
does everything else worse than Bane. There was no upside with him like you could say with the others.
Like I said, Ainge is F'ing awesome, it doesn't mar his overall record here because yes, we all make mistakes... but we can say it was a dumbass pick and obviously so at the time.